Posted on Nov 15, 2012

By Tracy Bloom

Spill Settlement: British oil giant BP has pleaded guilty to 14 felony counts related to the deadly Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion and the subsequent mess it caused in the Gulf of Mexico. The company will also pay out a record $4.5 billion settlement; two BP drilling managers were charged with negligent manslaughter. (Read more)

Climate Change Opposition: Climate change is a real threat to the world, but try telling that to Republicans. According to The Hill, GOP leaders who are openly opposing climate legislation that would raise revenue have gone so far as to sign the tea party-backed group Americans for Prosperity’s “no climate tax” pledge. (Read more)

Rove Theories: Karl Rove, who backed political action groups that poured millions into defeating President Obama, has been on the defensive ever since the president won re-election. During an appearance Wednesday night in Erie, Pa., the Republican strategist discussed five critical points of the campaign, and how they helped lead to Mitt Romney’s loss. Among this theories is that Romney had a “scientifically…butt-ugly primary.” Other key moments included the Republican National Convention, the first presidential debate and Hurricane Sandy. (Read more)

Abortion Hypocrisy: A Republican congressman who touts his pro-life position supported his ex-wife’s two abortions that she had before the couple were married, according to the Chattanooga Times Free Press. Rep. Scott DesJarlais of Tennessee made headlines before the election when it was revealed the former physician slept with a female patient. However, the couple’s 2001 divorce court transcript reveals that DesJarlais “had sexual relationships with at least two patients, three co-workers and a drug representative.” (Read more)

Chair Under Fire: Charlie Webster, head of Maine’s Republican Party, is defending himself after he suggested that black people committed voter fraud in the state because it was “unusual” to see them at the polls in a state he describes as being predominantly white. Said Webster: “I think we’re the whitest state in the country. So if you go to the polls and see people who are black, it’s unusual. And when you see a lot of people who are black, like six or eight or 10 people, you think, ‘Wow, where do they live?’ That was my point.” (Read more)

Video of the Day: Republican state senators in Georgia held a closed-door session in which they discussed a conspiracy theory involving President Obama trying to brainwash Americans on behalf of the United Nations “to transform America from the land of the free, to the land of the collective.” A Better Georgia caught nearly an hour of the four-hour meeting on camera.